The Kenyan Rural Electrification Authority’s (REA) chairman, Dr. Simon Gicharu, announced this week that the construction on a 55MW solar project in Kenya is set to begin.
The 55MW project, which will cost approximately US$116 million to develop, will stand as the largest solar plant ever developed in East and Central Africa, Gicharu told state-owned press service Kenya News Agency.
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“All the bottlenecks to the Garissa solar plant, the biggest in East and Central Africa, are over and next week, we are set to approve the designs and it will take one year to complete,” Gicharu said.
According to Business Daily, the 55MW PV project will produce energy for the national grid, with the site expected to generate enough energy to light up 625,000 homes. The solar project will sit on approximately 85 hectares of land and will be comprised of 200,000 solar panels.